Two years ago, I provided a list of the most populous urban agglomerations without an LDS presence. I wanted to update this list and make a few adjustments. City data retrieved for this post was retrieved from http://www.citypopulation.de/world/Agglomerations.html.
Below is a list of the 20 most populous urban agglomerations without a reportable LDS branch or ward provided with the most recent population estimate and world ranking. Cities located in countries without a known LDS presence are indicated in bold.
- Tehran, Iran - 13.6 million - 22nd
- Wuhan, China - 9.2 million - 36th
- Shenyang, China - 7.2 million - 45th
- Ahmadabad, India - 6.85 million - 49th
- Chongqing, China - 6.3 million - 54th
- Khartoum, Sudan - 5.15 million - 70th
- Surat, India - 5.05 million - 72nd
- Alexandria, Egypt - 4.8 million - 76th
- Shantou, China - 4.675 million - 79th
- Harbin, China - 4.625 million - 81st
- Chittagong, Bangladesh - 4.25 million - 90th
- Casablanca, Morocco - 4.125 million - 95th
- Kano, Nigeria - 3.8 million - 108th
- Dalian, China - 3.65 million - 112th
- Changchun, China - 3.575 million - 115th
- Jinan, China - 3.55 million - 116th
- Zhengzhou, China - 3.55 million - 116th
- Damascus, Syria - 3.45 million - 122nd
- Kanpur, India - 3.45 million - 122nd
- Algiers, Algeria - 3.375 million - 127th
- Tehran, Iran - 13.6 million - 22nd
- Ahmadabad, India - 6.85 million - 49th
- Khartoum, Sudan - 5.15 million - 70th
- Surat, India - 5.05 million - 72nd
- Alexandria, Egypt - 4.8 million - 76th
- Chittagong, Bangladesh - 4.25 million - 90th
- Casablanca, Morocco - 4.125 million - 95th
- Kano, Nigeria - 3.8 million - 108th
- Damascus, Syria - 3.45 million - 122nd
- Kanpur, India - 3.45 million - 122nd
- Algiers, Algeria - 3.375 million - 127th
- Jaipur, India - 3.325 million - 128th
- Lucknow, India - 3.275 million - 131st
- Meshed, Iran - 2.875 million - 147th
- Dakar, Senegal - 2.85 million - 148th
- Aleppo, Syria - 2.85 million - 148th
- Nagpur, India - 2.8 million - 154th
- Pyongyang, North Korea - 2.75 million - 156th
- Bamako, Mali - 2.55 million - 171st
- Tashkent, Uzbekistan - 2.55 million - 171st
9 comments:
This was a comment I wrote a while ago about new missionaries and their ages. I could not enter it from that PC at the time It may apply somewhat to this post about cities with no LDS presence, especially the ones that may legally allow LDS presence soon.
"I agree with the sentiment about missionaries resonating in their homecountries and cultures. That happens with their investigators, too.Hopefully, once an elder or sister learns the Gospel of jesus Christmore fully in their own tongue and culture, that becomes more ingrainedto them. Some who go foreign missions get a lot (or a few cases less)from the foreign environment but don't apply enough of faith andsacrifice to their service to get as much out of it. Of course, everymissionary makes their mission what they put into to it no matter what.I talked to Spaniards in Caliornia who thought our most effectivemissionaries over there would be from Spain. I agree. A nice combinationof Europeans with foreigners would be so much more welcome than twocomplete outsiders. My best times in Chile were with another Chileanelder. Grafting in the gospel more effectively, I feel.And like I commented earlier in this stream, if we could retain more ofour RMs we would be so much more powerful as a faith, as wards andstakes. I would like to know what percentage of RMs go less active. Ithink it is really high in Chile, where I have lived twice after themission there. Also, like I said, I know too many returned missionariesfrom my home state of Indiana who came back and eventually fell awayfrom activity, and they live across the US and sometimes in foreignnations.But on an optimistic note, there is always good growth most places inthe world, albeit incremental in some tougher places."
There. I forwarded that to my email and I may not have posted it. If I did, it still apllies to this. Muslim countries and China, plus Myanmar and North Korea, not to mention Cuba, all are tough nuts to crack.
How would Havana rate on this list?
Do we have an LDS group there already?
There has been a branch in Havana, Cuba for several years now but it is quite small. The first member to serve a mission from the branch recently began his mission in the United States.
I'd be interested to see similar lists for North America and Europe, which aren't represented here.
Three big chunks of the world totalling half the world's population have next to no LDS presence at all, and overcoming the challenges in those chunks will be huge.
The chunks? PR China, India, and "the Muslim world" (i.e. just about everything between Morocco and Indonesia, not counting India). Over 1 billion people in each, totalling about 3.5 B, or about half the earth's population. And apart from a few very tiny toeholds....
The reason North American and European agglomerations don't appear on the list is that every one of the 125 agglomerations of 1 million or more people in North America and Europe have an LDS presence. Many have temples, almost all have stakes--Athens perhaps being the largest without a stake, but there are two branches in Athens (both mission branches in the Greece Athens Mission).
The largest city in the US without an LDS congregation is probably Port St. Lucie, FL (164,603), although Stuart, FL, is 10 miles away and is the home of both a stake and a ward, both of which cover Port St. Lucie.
The top ten cities in Pennsylvania without an LDS congregation are all suburbs of Philadelphia (5) or Pittsburgh (5).
In the US, at least, as well as much of Canada and Western Europe, the cities without an LDS congregation are mostly adjacent to and covered by a neighboring city.
Cumorah.com has maps of the top 10 cities without a congregation per country (State & Province in US/Canada)
In the case of my mission in Italy, two of the eight cities I served in have no Church presence. One has 100,000 people and the branch that serves it is sixty miles away - not exactly adjacent. I'm interested in what other places are like that.
Casablanca, Morocco has a branch for expatriate members but its location is not published.
Post a Comment